Maruti Baleno : Official Review

This is a discussion on Maruti Baleno : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Originally Posted by Kamal
The GM is not giving you correct info.
Maruti indeed are doing a replacement of the ...

The GM is not giving you correct info.
Maruti indeed are doing a replacement of the suspension for 2015/first half of 2016 manufactured Balenos, but its not a publicly notified recall; only those who complain about the hard ride & do some follow up cribbing are entertained.
Lots of people have got it done, I'll be going for the suspension change FOC under warranty to my MASS tomorrow, after which the ride will be like that of the Balenos being made now - you could test ride a demo Baleno from your Nexa to experience the change.
What you need to do is to drop a mail to ' contact@nexaexperience.com & complain about the hard, bumpy ride & request for a suspension change under warranty.
Mention your cars' registration number, VIN, Engine/chassis number, date of purchase & your mobile number registered with them.
You'll get a call in a couple of days whereupon you can emphasise your problem; the issue should get resolved thereafter.
Regards & plz do share your experience.

I have an April 2017 manufactured car, so one with the 'improved' suspension. The rear is still pretty bumpy, each time I go over any undulation or speed bump at anything more than crawling speed I can literally hear the clunk of the tool kit in the boot being thrown up in the air. It does feel much improved over the test drive car which was just wallowy all over, however at the rear at least it seems to have a firm ride.

And yes, the first thing I did when I drove it out of the showroom was to go and get the tyre pressures corrected to 29 all round.

This is just my initial observation, and I have neither loaded the boot nor had any rear passengers while driving so far, so that might be the reason. It's not necessarily a bad thing in itself if it helps handling.

Try keeping the jack between the boot lip and the spare wheel. There is a small steel holder for the jack in that area. Once the jack is fixed here and tightened, it doesn't make any noise again.

I'll be posting a pic on this in my ownership review

I did see that space and the jack was already in there when the car was delivered. I am talking about the toolkit though (wheel spanner etc). I need to check if there is room for that in that same slot, otherwise I am thinking of putting in a layer of bubble wrap between the 3 tools that are in the tool pouch so that they don't make the clanging noise.

I have an April 2017 manufactured car, so one with the 'improved' suspension. The rear is still pretty bumpy, each time I go over any undulation or speed bump at anything more than crawling speed I can literally hear the clunk of the tool kit in the boot being thrown up in the air.

I have a July 2016 Zeta CVT. I got the rear shocks replaced 2 weeks ago (mentioned few pages back) under warranty after repeated complaints and multiple visits to the service centre.

There's no significant/remarkable difference in the ride quality.

Yes, the infamous clunk sound from the rear suspension is still audible. I'm not talking about the tool kit. To test this sound, I removed the tool kit from the boot and tested over speed breaker. The sound is definitely from the rear suspension. My 2012 Ritz VDi ABS with up-sized alloys/rubber feels much better

I own a diesel 2010 figo and planning to add baleno Delta petroI to the garage. What is the real world mileage of the manual petrol? I live in a city, where traffic jams are uncommon. I have test ridden the car but didn't get the chance to test the suspension on bad roads. How does it perform in that area?

I own a diesel 2010 figo and planning to add baleno Delta petroI to the garage. What is the real world mileage of the manual petrol? I live in a city, where traffic jams are uncommon. I have test ridden the car but didn't get the chance to test the suspension on bad roads. How does it perform in that area?

The suspension is firm. It's not in any way pliant or cushy, but it is also pretty solid and remains settled at three figure speeds.

The fuel efficiency depends on how it is driven, you can see from the MID that it is very sensitive to throttle input. If driven with a light foot it should give you mileage similar to your previous gen diesel Figo. It has a decent low end so for most driving scenarios you don't need to rev it very hard.

Thinking of upgrading from my old Wagonr - in a dilemma between the new Dzire and Baleno - tending towards Baleno Delta CVT at the moment over Dzire Vxi/Zxi AMT - any opinions? CVT owners, do you miss manual control during overtakes?

Also, does it make sense to upgrade the stock audio system on Baleno with Sony XAV AX100? Has anyone done this?

Took delivery of my Ray blue 1.2 Zeta yesterday. Car is super silent, had to drive straight to home hence didn't spend much time with her. Will pen down my initial experience in some time.

Here is a pic

I have booked a Red 1.2 Alpha on May 16th at Nexa Mira Road and the quoted delivery date is October 4th, 2017. I know I will probably get the car much sooner than that but wanted to know how long was your waiting period? Were there any delays or you got the car within the promised time?

Thinking of upgrading from my old Wagonr - in a dilemma between the new Dzire and Baleno - tending towards Baleno Delta CVT at the moment over Dzire Vxi/Zxi AMT - any opinions? CVT owners, do you miss manual control during overtakes?

Also, does it make sense to upgrade the stock audio system on Baleno with Sony XAV AX100? Has anyone done this?

Thanks!

Hi,

I have driven the CVT within city and in two-lane highways, without divider, as well. Overtaking happens with ease and even the need to switch on 'Sports' mode is required only rarely when you have to overtake 2-3 big trucks together, before the oncoming traffic gets to you.

That said, there is a 0.5 second lag between the throttle input and when the car reacts to you. You can consider this equivalent to shifting gears in the manual - when you depress the clutch and shift the gear before you can get going.

The trick to lag free driving is being in the right rpm - floor it too much, the lag is pretty evident.

When you need quick overtaking, 2500 to 3500 rpm is a good range to get a quick response. So a slight depression of the accelerator is all it takes to get it going in quick overtaking maneuvers. The plus side is you have sufficient "bandwidth" available in your brain and two steady hands on the steering to complete the overtaking maneuver, as you don't have to shift gears in the process.

Coming to the audio system, it is a decent one; nothing great or exceptional about it. Set the equalizer to 'Pop' and enjoy the balanced sound with a decent bass. It also depends on the sound processing chip in your phone - my Oneplus X sounds average and needs a good equalizer like V4A to boost the audio experience, while my wife's Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) sounds great on the same audio unit without any audio mods. If you are upgrading it, go for a system which has a touchscreen with Android auto/Carplay and also has steering control learning function.

While the Sony model you have selected has most of the features mentioned above, I'm not sure if the system is capable of learning the steering controls. You can probably check with Sony support.

Between Dzire and Baleno, they offer pretty much the same space, but the Baleno Delta variant is more loaded compared to the Dzire Vxi. Also, the folding rear seat offers more practicality for hauling luggage, when needed.

I have booked a Red 1.2 Alpha on May 16th at Nexa Mira Road and the quoted delivery date is October 4th, 2017. I know I will probably get the car much sooner than that but wanted to know how long was your waiting period? Were there any delays or you got the car within the promised time?

Congrats on the booking mate.

My entire booking experience was pathetic to say the least. I went through three different nexa showrooms and finally booked with Varun Nexa on 24th November 2016 for the Baleno Delta (P). After few days i changed the variant to Zeta only after confirming with the SA that the booking date wouldn't change but i was wrong. As per MSIL norms, any changes in the booking will be lead to cancellation of the old one and new booking order is created as on that date. So I was promised 24 weeks, no regular communication nor the booking number from the SA. All this changed the moment i sent a mail to their Showroom head and Customer care head and finally the car landed on 13th May. I see the current waiting period is 3 months and yes any color other than ray blue is delivered much before delivery period.

My entire booking experience was pathetic to say the least. I went through three different nexa showrooms and finally booked with Varun Nexa on 24th November 2016 for the Baleno Delta (P). After few days i changed the variant to Zeta only after confirming with the SA that the booking date wouldn't change but i was wrong. As per MSIL norms, any changes in the booking will be lead to cancellation of the old one and new booking order is created as on that date. So I was promised 24 weeks, no regular communication nor the booking number from the SA. All this changed the moment i sent a mail to their Showroom head and Customer care head and finally the car landed on 13th May. I see the current waiting period is 3 months and yes any color other than ray blue is delivered much before delivery period.

Hope this helps.

Thanks mate, that was helpful! A small typo in my post, mine is a Delta, not an Alpha. I have given three colour options also to the dealer. Red, Grey and Urban Blue with Red being the preferred colour. Lets see when do I get my allotment.

Thanks so much for the detailed response. Your response actually gives me a lot more confidence to go ahead and book the CVT The folding seat is actually one of the big positives that is tilting my decision in favor of the Baleno. Hatchback design seems to be the more practical option any day for a specific dimension. I'll explore a bit further on the audio.

Request advice from the existing owners. 3M provides some pain protection coating solutions, which one should I opt for as i don't have covered parking. I am looking for a reasonable pricing as well.

please advice.

Those so called paint protection treatments have very questionable effectiveness, dont last long, cost a lot of money, and if applied badly can actually damage the paint finish. Save your money and buy a car cover.

If you need to do some detailing go for good quality wax polishing from a professional detailer at regular intervals.